Method and system for organizing an annotation structure and for querying data and annotations

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for capturing annotations about database material in a way that allows queries with conditions or predicates on both the database material and the annotations. Database material may be text, computer programs, graphics, audio, spreadsheets, or any other material which may be stored and indexed. Database material may be in one or multiple sources, and annotations may be stored together with the original material or in a separate store. Annotations can be used to capture information such as additional facts about the database material, the opinions and judgments of experts about the database material, and/or links to other related material. Annotations may be captured in a structured form to enhance queryability and semantic interpretation.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of data entry and retrieval.Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and systemhaving the capability to organize an annotation structure and to queryboth data and annotations in computer systems. More particularly, thepresent invention enables the annotation of stored information, andpermits the capture, sharing, and querying of data and annotations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Successful planning and decision making in many technical and otherindustries depends on the expeditious and correct interpretation ofcomplex information. For example, in the drug industry the data may haveorigins as diverse as high throughput screening experiments, clinicaltrials, patent information and research journals. In the petroleumindustry the data may span seismic measurements, aerial surveys,laboratory data and economic forecasts. A system capable of providingunified access to disparate data sources and applications reduces thetime spent finding, accessing, preparing, transforming and reformattingdata, and allows professionals to focus on the interpretation andextraction of knowledge for planning and decision making.

However, one complication with providing this type of unified access isthat the data inevitably spans several disciplines, with an attendantprobability of misinterpretation. Extensive knowledge of multipledomains is required if misuse is to be avoided.

Therefore, there is still an unsatisfied need for an informationmanagement system that clarifies the generation, use, and purpose of thedata. The information management system can capture knowledge about thegenesis and history of the data, how analyses are done, how decisionsare made, and what the outcomes are. This “corporate memory” forms thebasis for the analysis required to make better technical and businessdecisions.

Several attempts have been made to access information based onannotations. Illustrative attempts are described in the followingreferences:

U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,295 to Katz et al.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,775 to King et al.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,474 to Lopresti et al.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,739 to Yung.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,295 describes a method and apparatusfor computer retrieval of database material. Annotations are providedfor selected database subdivisions and are converted to a structuredform and stored in that form along with connections to correspondingsubdivisions. Searching for relevant subdivisions involves entering aquery in natural language or structured form, converting naturallanguage queries to structured form, matching the structured form queryagainst stored annotations, and retrieving database subdivisionsconnected to matched annotations.

However, the teaching of this patent is limited to a system with thecapability to search the annotations to locate the database material.The system does not have the capability to search the stored informationbased on both the annotations and database material, or to search ondatabase material to retrieve the annotations. As a result, the systemis not suitable for directly locating a subset of data where the filterhas predicates on both the annotations and database material. Rather, itwill locate all database material that corresponds to the annotationpredicates and it would require a second step to filter this subdivisionand to apply the data predicates.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention contemplates a method and apparatus for capturingannotations about database material in a way that allows queries withconditions or predicates on both the database material and theannotations. Database material may be text, graphics, spreadsheets,relational tables or any other material which may be stored and indexed.An annotatable data item (i.e. the subsection of database material thatcan be annotated) is any entity referenced by an index (e.g. by anobject identifier) or any attribute or subcomponent of such an entity,or any arbitrary set of such items. Examples include a table such as arelational table or spreadsheet, a view such as a relational view, a rowwithin a table, a cell within a table (i.e. the intersection of a columnand a row), a column within a table, an object, an attribute of anobject, a set of rows or columns from one table, or a set of rows fromdifferent tables. The annotatable data items may be in a single sourceor multiple sources, or span such sources. Multiple annotations may beentered for a single annotatable data item.

The annotations, together with the pointer information that relates themto the original database material, may be stored in a separate source sothat the data model and operation of the sources containing the originaldatabase material is not affected. It is the pointer information thatallows formulation of the queries to retrieve either annotations relatedto specific database material or database material related to specificannotations.

Annotations may be used to capture information such as additional factsabout the database material, the opinions and judgments of experts aboutthe database material, and/or links to other related material.Annotations may be entered manually or automatically by an application.Henceforth, the person or application that enters an annotation will bereferred to as an annotation author, and the person or application thatretrieves annotation and/or database material will be referred to as thereader.

Annotations may be captured in structured form to enhance queryabilityand semantic interpretation as well as to provide some order for usersto enter this additional information content. The entry of comments inan unorganized and undisciplined way can often lead to more data withlittle useful content. The structure is comprised of labeled categories,to aid semantic interpretation. The annotation structure could be assimple as a “header” category containing attributes (or fields) aboutwhom and when the person or application wrote the annotation, togetherwith a “business meaning” category containing a single “Comment” fieldfor a textual description of the data item being annotated. In thisexample, the title of the latter category, “business meaning” can aid inthe interpretation of the “Comment” field. An annotation structure maybe more complicated than the one illustrated above and contain manycategories, each of which contains a number of attributes. Some or allof these attributes may have constraints placed on their values. Forexample, the constraints may be on the datatype (e.g. numeric,character) and/or on their values, so that users have to enter valuesconsistent with a particular datatype or consistent with an input listor pick-list. The constraints enforce more structure and consistency inthe annotation content and also enhance the queryability with today'squery engines.

It is the capture and query of information from experts represents oneimportant feature of the present invention. To this end, the presentmethod offers the capability to allow standardized structure ofannotations based on the “group” to which the author and reader belong,as well as on the data item being annotated. A group can be as small asone person, in which case there can be a personalized annotationstructure, or it can contain a “related” set of people, such as peopleof a particular discipline or performing a particular role. Henceforth,group will be referred to as a “context”. There is a context associatedwith the annotation author as well as the reader. Thus, it is permittedfor the structure for the entry of an annotation about any one data itemto be different depending on the context of the author, and for thisinformation to be presented differently on retrieval depending on thecontext of the reader. These structures that are associated withcontexts, can be used to give a level of credibility to the annotations.That is, the annotation structure may be set up such that only expertsin a given discipline (context) can enter information or advicepertaining to the expertise understood by that discipline. Filtering andtransforming the entered annotation content based on the context of thereader can be used to retrieve only relevant information, or to “hide”information to which this reader context is unauthorised, or to presentthe information in a form easily understood by the discipline or role ofthe reader. Multiple annotations from authors with different contexts orwithin the same context can be attached to a single annotatable dataitem.

It should be understood that the foregoing capabilities encompass asingle annotation structure containing an attribute such as “Comment” or“URL” for every annotatable data item, wherein annotations of this typeare entered and retrieved in the same way by all author/readers.

The method of the present invention is outlined as follows:

The type of annotatable data item is identified and the allowedstructures for this type are registered. A type may include, but is notlimited to, “set of rows of table x” or “any cell in column y ofspreadsheet z”. This registration step can be done as a preprocessingstep or may be done immediately before annotation entry.

For annotation entry, an annotatable data item is chosen (e.g. a 5thcell in column y of spreadsheet z) and an annotation is entered andstored. The annotation is associated with the annotatable data item atthe time of entry by including pointer information to the annotatabledata item with the annotation. Optionally, the annotation may be“propagated” or automatically associated with additional annotatabledata items using extra information defined in the registration step.Once annotations have been stored, queries may be issued to retrieveboth the annotation content and/or the database material.

There are a number of query modes possible. In the first mode, thereader may browse the annotations in the context of the databasematerial. That is, the reader identifies the specific database materialof interest and all accompanying annotations are retrieved. This isachieved by issuing a query using the pointer information stored withthe annotations. This mode is useful when the reader is perusingdatabase material and wants to read annotations that contain relatedinformation or links to related information.

A second mode refers to querying for particular annotations in thecontext of the data. That is, the reader first identifies the databasematerial of interest. This may include identifying an annotatable dataitem or a type of annotatable data item. In the case of an annotatabledata item, the reader asks for the accompanying annotations withparticular characteristics, (e.g. where the author field containsSmith). In the case of a type, the reader may ask for elements of thetype whose annotations have particular characteristics. A query isissued that uses the pointer information and specifies a filter on theannotation content.

The reader may alternatively ask for only the elements of the type andtheir annotations where the elements of the type and their annotationsboth have filters on their content. In this case, a query is issued thatuses the pointer information and specifies a filter on the annotationcontent and also a filter on the data content.

The second mode is useful when the reader wishes to review only certainannotations that relate to the data (e.g. all those by expert X) or whenthe reader wishes to focus on particular database material andannotation content (e.g. find all the data and annotations about drugmolecules that have biological activity greater than x (data content)and for which the experts said the experimental measurement was reliable(annotation content)).

The third mode involves querying across the full body of annotations,regardless of the database material being annotated. This may be used,for example, for locating all annotations containing a particularcategory or for locating annotations containing particular content. Forexample, an exemplary query can be: How many times has Simulationpackage x been used to generate production estimates?

The fourth mode involves querying for particular data in the context ofthe annotations, is an extension of the third mode. In this case, thequery retrieves not only the annotations of interest but also thedatabase material that they annotate. For example, in the fourth mode,the answer to the above exemplary query: “How many times has Simulationpackage x been used to generate production estimates?” might include notonly how many times the package x has been used but also the values ofthe production estimates. This mode also uses the pointer information inorder to formulate the query to retrieve the appropriate databasematerial.

According to a preferred embodiment, an information management method isimplemented by the information management system, whereby one or moreusers such as administrators, annotation authors, readers, and/orapplications, start the information management method of the presentinvention by setting up an annotation structure. Using the informationmanagement system, a user is capable of performing any one or more ofthe following tasks or processes:

Enter annotations about the data or fields by various input means.

Browse annotations in the context of data.

Simultaneously query for both annotations and data.

Query for particular annotations in the context of data.

Query across the full body of annotations.

Query for particular data in the context of the annotations.

It is therefore clear that the information management system is notdomain specific, in that it can be used in combination with anyapplication regardless of the complexities of the underlying technicalor professional fields. The data model for the annotations (i.e., theannotation metadata model) is generic, self-describing, andself-contained.

The information management system is adaptable to the user's querypreferences in that the information management system provides theability to operate in a datacentric mode or in an annotation-centricmode. The data centric-mode will be explained in connection with FIGS. 5and 6, and allows the user to select desired data items and tosubsequently query and retrieve data and annotations based on these dataitems. The annotation-centric mode will be explained in connection withFIGS. 7 and 8, and allows the user to select the annotation categoriesand to subsequently query and retrieve data and annotations based on thecontent of the selected annotation categories. As a result, theinformation management system allows both data and annotations to bequeried, in that queries can be made over the data content, over theannotation content, or over both simultaneously. This provides theability to query the annotations, or the annotations and the data, andfurther provides the ability to retrieve the annotations when theirassociated data is retrieved.

Yet another feature of the information management system is its abilityto allow annotations to be targeted to, or associated with data atdifferent levels of granularities, such as: collection/view/table,attribute/column, instance/row, cell, arbitrary combinations thereof,and so forth.

Still another feature of the information management system is itsability to support storage and retrieval of annotations with a genericstructure or a more specific structure, where the structure can dependon the nature of the data being annotated and the context of the authorof the annotation.

In addition, the information management system is capable of supportingannotations of data in a variety of sources, formats, and/or datamodels. The information management system can annotate data in multiplesources when coupled with a data integration engine, in only one source,or in any source regardless of the source's data model (diversesources). Further, the information management system can annotate viewson the data in these sources, without requiring the data sources beingannotated to be modified. The information management system can havemultiple annotations for the same data object, and different annotationson the same data item can be entered by different people/applications orby the same person/application at different times. Moreover, when theannotations are retrieved, they can be filtered or modified in a waythat depends on the context of the reader. The annotations can also bepropagated to specific target data items that can be selected from adrop down list, or by entering a free format text, numeric, document,URL, and so forth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various features of the present invention and the manner ofattaining them will be described in greater detail with reference to thefollowing description, claims, and drawings, wherein reference numeralsare reused, where appropriate, to indicate a correspondence between thereferenced items.

FIG. 1 is a high level architecture of an information management systemaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 1A is a diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the informationmanagement system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary computer screen that can begenerated using the information management system of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3A-3D represent a flow chart that illustrates a process of settingup the annotation structure using the information management system ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart that illustrates a process of writing anannotation using the information management system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart that illustrates a process of browsing anannotation in the context of data, using the information managementsystem of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart that illustrates a process of querying forparticular annotations in the context of data, using the informationmanagement system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart that illustrates a process of querying across thefull body of annotations, using the information management system ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart that illustrates a process of querying forparticular data in the context of the annotations, using the informationmanagement system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 1 that might be utilized to practice theteachings of the present invention. The system 1 includes a plurality ofcomputers or processors 2, 3, 4. While for purposes of illustration thecomputers 2, 3, 4 are described as possessing specialized functions, itshould be clear that any one, or a combination of the computers 2, 3, 4can be used to generate the annotations, and to search the data andannotations sources (e.g. databases) as described herein.

As further illustrated in FIG. 1A, computer 2 hosts an informationmanagement system 10 of the present invention, and includes, or isconnected to one or multiple databases 14, 16 to be searched. Computer 2is interconnected to computer 3 via an annotation input link 5 forallowing annotations to be inputted from computer 3 to computer 2. Theannotation input can be from a user of, for example, a graphical userinterface (GUI) application, or from a software application, running forexample on computer 3. One or more input devices 7 can be used toprovide information to computer 3. These input devices may include, butare not limited to, keyboard devices, pointing devices, monitors,scanners, modems, inputs from other systems, microphones and voicerecognition applications, and like devices.

Computer 2 is interconnected to computer 4 via an annotation output link8 for allowing annotations to be outputted from computer 2 to computer4. The annotations and/or other data can be retrieved on the request ofa user of, for example, a GUI application, or on the request of asoftware application running for example on computer 4. The annotationsand/or other data that are retrieved from the system, may be utilized ofdisplayed by means of one or more of output devices 9. These outputdevices 9 may include, but are not limited to, monitors, printers,modems, outputs to other systems, speakers and audio synthesizers,robots, storage systems, and like devices.

FIG. 1A portrays the overall environment in which the informationmanagement system 10 can be used according to the present invention. Theinformation management system 10 uses a data integration engine 12 thatpermits users and/or applications to pose queries against data that mayreside in multiple data sources, such as databases 14 and 16. As usedherein, an integration engine can be any application system that canaccept a query against one or multiple data sources in any form and thatreturns the requested data from one or multiple data source in anydesired form. An exemplary data integration engine 12 is available fromInternational Business Machines under the trademark DataJoiner®. Usingthe data integration engine 12, annotations can be made on data from abroad variety of existing sources, regardless of their locations. Itfurther enables the independent storage of annotations, such as in anannotation database 20, without impacting the users′ applications 22, ordatabases 14, 16. In the case where the user/application only wishes toannotate data in a single datasource, it is possible to writes theannotations in the same datasource, and a data integration engine is notneeded.

A query/browser/annotator 25 is a separate application that providesusers (represented by computer 27) with a graphical user interface (GUI)to facilitate the interaction with the information management system 10.Using the query/browser/annotator 25, the users can find, view, andannotate data.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an exemplary computer screen 50 that can begenerated using the information management system 10 of FIG. 1. Thescreen 50 provides an example of how a user 27 can query data in thebusiness area of oil exploration and production. The screen 50 shows adata collection that describes the company's oil fields. The names ofthe oil fields are displayed in the first column 88. The differentattributes of the view are shown in the first row 89. A complex querycan be posed by placing predicates in the second row 92 and in block 91.The query illustrated in FIG. 2 asks for rows that have a Reserve valuethat is greater than 300, Units in Bcf, and a Certainty factor that isgreater than 70%, as well as a Usage appropriate for Tax Purposes. Usageis actually an annotation category on cells in the Reserve data column.As a result, this exemplary query combines attributes of the data alongwith the annotation content to qualify the results.

The result of this query is shown in the third row. Various annotationson the retrieved values or data of this row are shown attached to thebar. It should be understood that one value or data may have multipleannotations, of multiple types, and that different values may havedifferent sorts of annotations. The formats of the annotations depend onthe discipline or context of the persons or applications writing,reading, or entering the annotations. For example, a reservoir engineermight add an annotation about a reserve simulation, but an accountantwould add annotations about the financial analysis.

In operation, one or more users, such as an administrator 27, or theclient application 22, start the information management method of thepresent invention by setting up an annotation structure, as illustratedin FIGS. 3A-3D The information management system 10 is capable ofperforming any one or more of the following tasks or processes, with theunderstanding that it can perform other tasks as well:

Entering annotations about the data or fields by various input means, asillustrated in FIG. 4. These annotations are preferably stored in aseparate database 20. It should however be understood that theannotations can be stored in the same data sources (i.e., 14, 16) as thedata.

Browsing annotations in the context of data, as illustrated in FIG. 5.

Simultaneously query for both annotations and data.

Querying for particular annotations in the context of data, asillustrated in FIG. 6.

Querying across the full body of annotations, as illustrated in FIG. 7.

Querying for particular data in the context of the annotations, asillustrated in FIG. 8.

The foregoing tasks will now be described in greater detail withreference to their respective drawings. Starting with the process ofsetting up or organizing the annotation structure 100 (FIG. 3A), anadministrator 27, for example, identifies data items or data item typesto be annotated, as shown in block or step 105. An annotatable data itemcan be a table, a view, a row, a cell, a column or any entity referencedby an index (e.g., by an object identifier), or any attribute orsubcomponent of such an entity, or any arbitrary set of such items.Specification of an annotatable data item allows any of a whole set ofsimilar annotatable data items to have the same annotation structure.For example, “any object in class y”, “any row in table x”, “any cell incolumn a of table b”. This greatly facilitates the annotation structuresetup and registers the availability of annotation structures for datathat has not yet been input, such as the addition of rows to a table orobjects to a class. The data items and data item types can originatefrom a single source or from multiple sources 14, 16. In the example ofFIG. 2, one of the data item types to be annotated is any cell which islisted in the column whose attribute is “Reserve”.

The annotatable data item to be annotated can be selected by selectingan attribute or attributes of an entity, where the entity can bereferenced, for example, by an index, a schema object or objects, or anyarbitrary set of such attributes and/or schema objects. As used herein,a schema object can be, for example, a table, a class, an attribute of aclass, a view, a column, a function, or any combination thereof.

The administrator 27 then selects or enters a context, if one does notalready exist, for the annotation author as illustrated in block 110.The term “context” denotes a discipline, or a role being performed by aperson of a particular discipline. In the above example, it is possibleto allow persons of different disciplines to annotate various dataitems. For illustration purposes, it is possible to allow reservoirengineers, geologists and/or chemists to enter different types ofinformation in their annotations.

Since multiple types of information can be captured in an annotationabout each data item, the administrator 27 can enter a category ofinformation to be captured about the data item, as illustrated in block115. These categories can be factual or interpretive in nature. Examplesinclude, but are not limited to the origin of the data (factual), thequality of the data (interpretive), and appropriate use of the data(factual and/or interpretive). The administrator 27 enters a desiredcategory (block 115).

The method 100 then automatically determines if the selected categoryalready exists (block 120). If the selected category does not exist, theadministrator 27 enters the list of attributes for this category and howthe annotation content will be defined for these attributes (block 125).As an example, for the category origin of data, three attributes mightbe: vendor name, install date, and the name of the person who performedthe installation.

Annotation content can be associated with these attributes, duringsubsequent annotation entry, by any of several mechanisms, including butnot limited to the following mechanisms:

A list of values (pick-list) from which an annotation author can select.

Qualifying datatypes for the values, e.g. text, numeric, document, URL,and so forth.

The method 100 then automatically inquires the administrator 27 at block130 if another category is required for the selected data item. If theadministrator 27 determines that another category is needed, the method100 repeats the set of steps or blocks 115, 120, 125, and 130, until theadministrator 27 determines at block 130 that no additional categoriesare needed for the selected data item.

If at block 120 the method 100 determines that the selected categoryalready exists, the method 100 proceeds to block 130 and inquires if anadditional category is required for the selected data item. If at block130 the administrator 27 instructs the method 100 that no additionalcategory is needed, the method 100 proceeds to block 135 (FIG. 3B), forallowing the administrator 27 to define the annotation structure fromthe selected categories, to assemble the categories, and to associatethe annotation structure with the annotatable data items.

In the example of FIG. 2, the administrator 27 defines the annotationstructure by identifying the desired categories and the order in whichthe annotation content will be entered and/or displayed. Forillustration purposes, the annotation structure for cell 75 includesthree categories: The first category 77 represents the annotationauthor's category, and provides information (in the form ofannotations), for instance, about the author's name, the context orauthor's discipline, and the entry date. The second category 78represents the simulation category, and provides information about theperson who ran the simulation, e.g. reservoir engineer's name, the typeof oil well simulation, the location of the simulation reference files,and the simulation date. The third category 79 represents the usagecategory, and provides information about the usage of data in cell 75that can be used for tax purposes, the person who authorized this use ofthe data, and further comments about the use. While the foregoingexample is explained in light of certain specific entries, it should beclear that alternative entries and/or categories can be used.

Once the annotation structure is defined at block 135, the method 100automatically determines at block 140 whether this annotation structurealready exists, since annotation structures can be reused. If the method100 determines that the annotation structure does not exist, theadministrator 27 builds a new annotation structure from the selectedcategories (block 145), as explained above in connection with block 135.The annotation structure can be built automatically from concatenationof the annotation categories. If the method 100 determines that theannotation structure already exists, it proceeds to block 150.

The method 100 associates the annotation structures with the annotatabledata item. Annotation structures can vary according to the data itembeing annotated and/or to the context of the annotation author. Multipleannotations with differing or identical structures can be assigned tothe same data item. It should be clear that the contexts can be definedfor groups of people (or applications) or on an individual basis.

When the annotation structure assignment is completed at block 150, themethod 100 can proceed to decision block 155 (FIG. 3C). Optionally, themethod 100 can perform a template transforming (or filtering) loopillustrated by blocks 155, 160, 165, 170, and/or an annotationpropagation loop illustrated by blocks 175, 180.

The template transforming loop can be automatically initiated by themethod 100 at the decision block 155, whereby, the method 100 inquireswhether the administrator 27 (or application 22) wishes to specify afilter or modify a template to reflect the reader's context. Theadministrator 27 indicates which categories are to be retained, whichattributes within these categories are to be retained, which attributenames are to be changed and how, and more generally transformations thatshould be applied to the annotation content.

For illustration purposes, if the reader is a reservoir engineer, he orshe might not be interested in retrieving annotations by accountants,since these may not be relevant to their work. Alternatively, a readerwho is a project manager might not be interested in, or may not beallowed to see the simulation category of the annotation.

If the administrator 27 determines at decision block 155 that a filterand/or a template is needed, the administrator 27 enters a readercontext, such as “Reservoir Engineer” (FIG. 2), as shown by block 160.The administrator 27 then specifies a corresponding reader template atblock 165, and the method 100 inquires at decision block 170 whethertemplates for additional reader contexts are desired.

If the administrator 27 determines at block 170 that a template for anadditional reader context is desired, the method 100 proceeds to block160 and repeats the reader selection loop comprised of steps 160, 165,170, until the administrator 27 determines at block 170 that noadditional templates are desired.

When the reader selection loop terminates, or if the method 100determines at step 155 that neither a filter nor a template is needed,the method 100 proceeds to decision block 175 and inquires whether ornot the administrator 27 wishes to propagate the annotations about theselected data item. When the annotation structures are assigned to thedata items, the method 100 enables the annotations written through thesestructures to be propagated to other data items. For example, a dataitem that describes the depth of an oil well could appear in many viewspertaining to oil wells. Annotations about a depth value could bepropagated to all of these views, not just the one against which theannotation was entered. In the example of FIG. 2, the data in cell 75could appear in different views suitable for accountants, geologists,chemists, reservoir engineers and/or viewers of other disciplines. Inmany of these cases, the viewers might also want to see the annotationsentered by the reservoir engineer in their views. If at step 175 theadministrator 27 determines that no propagation is desired, the method100 proceeds to decision block 185 and inquires whether or notadditional contexts for the annotation authors are desired, as it willbe explained later.

If at block 175 the method 100 determines that the annotations need tobe propagated, the method 100 allows the administrator 27 to specify thetarget data items or data item types to receive the propagatedannotations (block 180). These target data items can be selected from adrop down list and/or by entering text. The method 100 then proceeds todecision block 185 and inquires whether or not additional contexts forthe annotation authors are desired. If the answer to this inquiry is inthe affirmative, the method 100 loops back to block 110, and performsthe loop comprised of the steps between blocks 110 and 185, as describedabove, until the administrator 27 determines that no additional contextfor the annotation authors is needed.

When the latter condition is satisfied, the method 100 proceeds to block190 and inquires whether or not the user 27 needs to select additionaldata items. If no additional data items need to be selected, the method100 is terminated at block 195. If, on the other hands additional dataitems need to be selected, the method 100 loops back to block 105, andperforms the loop comprised of the steps between blocks 105 and 190, asdescribed above, until the method 100 is terminated at step 195.

Once the information management system 10 is set up according to themethod 100, the system 10 will be ready to be used by the annotationauthors, readers, and applications. FIGS. 4 through 8 illustrateexemplary methods of using the information management system 10. Insummary, FIG. 4 illustrates the process of writing or inputting anannotation, FIG. 5 illustrates the process of browsing an annotation inthe context of data, FIG. 6 illustrates the process of querying forparticular annotations in the context of data, FIG. 7 illustrates theprocess of querying across the full body of annotations, and FIG. 8illustrates the process of querying for particular data in the contextof the annotations.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 200 of writing an annotation using theinformation management system 10 of FIG. 1. The user, such as an author27 (and/or the application 22) starts at block 205 by selecting the dataitem to be annotated, and further enters the annotation contentcorresponding to a predefined annotation structure at block 210. Themethod 200 then stores the annotations in the data store 20 (FIG. 1),for subsequent retrieval using the browse or query capabilities of theinformation management system 10.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 250 for reading or browsing the annotationsin the context of the data. For example, if a reader 27 (and/or anapplication 22) wishes to review or browse annotations about members ofthe data collection or view of interest, the information managementsystem 10 is capable of retrieving and displaying the requestedannotations. Structured Query Language (SQL) is an example of a languagethat can be used to search for, and return the annotations.

The method 250 begins at block 255 by having the reader 27 select thedata of interest. The method 250 then inquires at block 260 if thereader wishes to view the annotations. If not, the method 250 terminatesat block 263. If the reply to this inquiry is in the affirmative, theannotations corresponding to the data items within the data collectionare retrieved on request from the data storage 20. The annotationcontent can be returned as written or, alternatively, filtered ormodified in a way that depends on the context of the reader.

The method 250 proceeds to the decision block 270 and inquires if therequested annotation content is subject to filtering, transformation ormodification. If it is, the method 250 proceeds to block 275 andperforms the necessary filtering, transformation and/or modification,and then returns or displays the requested annotations at block 280. Ifon the other hand, the method 250 determines that filtering,transformation and/or modification is not required, it returns ordisplays the requested annotations at block 280. The loop comprised ofblocks 270, 275, and 280 will hereinafter be referred to as thetransforming loop 290.

FIG. 6 illustrates a method 300 for querying annotations in the contextof the data, or in other terms. The method 300 performs a “combined”query, with conditions (predicates) on both data and annotation content.A reader 27 selects a data item type or data collection of interest(block 305), and enters query predicates conforming to predefinedannotation structures for annotations on the data items in the selecteddata collection or associated with the data item type (block 310). Ifthe reader 27 wishes to enter query predicates on the data itemsthemselves (decision block 315), the reader specifies the data itemqueries (block 320). In response, the method 300 retrieves theannotations and data conforming to the reader's query predicates (block325). The annotation content can be returned as written or,alternatively, filtered or modified in a way that depends on the contextof the reader. If the reader 27 does not wish to query predicates on thedata items themselves (decision block 315), the method 300 proceeds toblock 325. If needed, the method 300 performs the transforming loop 290as discussed above in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method 350 for querying annotations across the fullbody of available annotations. The reader 27 selects the annotationcategory or categories of interest (block 355), and enters querypredicates based on the definition of the selected category orcategories (block 360). The method 350 retrieves all the annotationsthat obey the query predicates regardless of the annotation structure(block 365). The annotation content can be returned as written or,alternatively, filtered or modified in a way that depends on the contextof the reader. If needed, the method 350 performs the transforming loop290 as discussed above in connection with FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 illustrates a method 400 for querying for particular data in thecontext of the annotations, which method 400 is therefore said to beannotation-centric. The reader 27 selects the annotation category orcategories of interest (block 405), and enters query predicates based onthe definition of the selected category or categories (block 410). Themethod 400 retrieves all the annotations and the data items associatedwith the annotations that obey the annotation query predicates (block415). The annotation content can be returned as written or,alternatively, filtered or modified in a way that depends on the contextof the reader. Optionally, the method 400 can sort the retrieved dataand annotations by the type of the data collection (block 420). Ifneeded, the method 400 performs the transforming loop 290 as discussedabove in connection with FIG. 5.

It is to be understood that the specific embodiments of the inventionthat have been described above are merely illustrative of oneapplication of the principles of the present invention. Numerousmodifications may be made to the information management system andassociated methods described herein without departing from the spiritand scope of the present invention. For example, while the informationmanagement method is described in terms of a computer, it should beunderstood that this method can be implemented without the use of acomputer, and as such it can cover a method of conducting business andother information management tasks.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of managing information containing data,comprising: organizing an annotation structure; inputting annotations;generating a query for simultaneously querying for particular data andannotations; in response to the query, retrieving the particular dataand annotations, if any; and wherein organizing the annotation structureincludes selecting an annotatable data item to be annotated by selectingan attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced by any one ormore of: an index, a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schemaobject.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting theannotatable data item includes selecting the entire entity.
 3. Themethod according to claim 2, wherein selecting the annotation structureincludes selecting two or more categories.
 4. The method according toclaim 2, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesselecting a context for an annotation author.
 5. The method according toclaim 4, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesentering a category of information to be captured about each data item.6. The method according to claim 5, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes defining an annotation structure from theselected category.
 7. The method according to claim 6, whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes assembling two or morecategories.
 8. The method according to claim 4, wherein organizing theannotation structure further includes selecting an existing a categoryof information.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein inputtingannotations includes selecting the data item to be annotated andentering the annotation content corresponding to the annotationstructure.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting anattribute of the entity includes selecting one or more attributes fromany one or more of: a table, a spreadsheet, a view, a row within atable, an object, a set of rows from one table, a set of rows fromdifferent tables, a file, a computer program, a graphics collection, oran audio collection.
 11. The method according to claim 1, whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes using a data integrationengine to select a plurality of annotatable data items originating fromat least two sources.
 12. The method according to claim 1, whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes using a data integrationengine to select an annotatable data item originating from at least twosources.
 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein selecting theannotatable data item includes selecting the entire entity.
 14. Themethod according to claim 13, wherein selecting the annotation structureincludes selecting two or more categories.
 15. The method according toclaim 13, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesselecting a context for an annotation author.
 16. The method accordingto claim 15, wherein organizing the annotation structure furtherincludes entering a category of information to be captured about eachdata item.
 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein organizing theannotation structure further includes defining an annotation structurefrom the selected category.
 18. The method according to claim 17,wherein organizing the annotation structure includes assembling two ormore categories.
 19. The method according to claim 15, whereinorganizing the annotation structure further includes selecting anexisting a category of information.
 20. The method according to claim19, wherein inputting annotations includes selecting the data item to beannotated and entering the annotation content corresponding to theannotation structure.
 21. The method according to claim 12, whereinselecting an attribute of the entity includes selecting one or moreattributes from any one or more of: a table, a spreadsheet, a view, arow within a table, an object, a set of rows from one table, a set ofrows from different tables, a file, a computer program, a graphicscollection, or an audio collection.
 22. The method according to claim12, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesselecting a context for an annotation author.
 23. The method accordingto claim 12, wherein organizing the annotation structure furtherincludes setting up a category structure if one does not exist.
 24. Themethod according to claim 12, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes initiating a transforming loop.
 25. Themethod according to claim 12, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes initiating an annotation propagation loop.26. The method according to claim 12, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes, if needed, adding one or more contexts foran annotation author.
 27. The method according to claim 12, whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes associating the annotationstructure with the annotatable data item.
 28. The method according toclaim 12, wherein retrieving the particular data and annotations, ifany, includes retrieving the annotations in the context of the data. 29.The method according to claim 12, wherein retrieving the particular dataand annotations further includes transforming the annotations prior todisplay.
 30. The method according to claim 12, wherein querying forparticular data and annotations includes querying annotations in thecontext of the data, by selecting a data collection of interest andentering annotation query predicates for annotations on the data item inthe selected data collection.
 31. The method according to claim 12,wherein querying for particular data and annotations includes exclusivequerying of annotations.
 32. The method according to claim 12, whereinquerying for particular data and annotations includes querying forparticular data in the context of the annotations, by selecting anannotation category of interest, and by entering annotation querypredicates based on the selected annotation category.
 33. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein retrieving the particular data andannotations includes integrating annotations residing in multiplesources.
 34. The method according to claim 12, wherein organizing theannotation structure includes organizing two or more annotationstructures for the same annotatable data item for use by differentauthor contexts.
 35. The method according to claim 12, wherein inputtingannotations includes inputting multiple annotations on a singleannotatable data item.
 36. The method according to claim 12, whereininputting annotations includes inputting annotations from differentauthors.
 37. The method according to claim 1, wherein organizing theannotation structure further includes selecting a context for anannotation author.
 38. The method according to claim 1, whereinorganizing the annotation structure further includes setting up acategory structure if one does not exist.
 39. The method according toclaim 1, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesinitiating a transforming loop.
 40. The method according to claim 1,wherein organizing the annotation structure further includes initiatingan annotation propagation loop.
 41. The method according to claim 1,wherein organizing the annotation structure further includes, if needed,adding one or more contexts for an annotation author.
 42. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein organizing the annotation structureincludes associating the annotation structure with the annotatable dataitem.
 43. The method according to claim 1, wherein retrieving theparticular data and annotations, if any, includes retrieving theannotations in the context of the data.
 44. The method according toclaim 1, wherein retrieving the particular data and annotations furtherincludes transforming the annotations prior to display.
 45. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein querying for particular data andannotations includes querying annotations in the context of the data, byselecting a data collection of interest and entering annotation querypredicates for annotations on the data item in the selected datacollection.
 46. The method according to claim 1, wherein querying forparticular data and annotations includes exclusive querying ofannotations.
 47. The method according to claim 1, wherein querying forparticular data and annotations includes querying for particular data inthe context of the annotations, by selecting an annotation category ofinterest, and by entering annotation query predicates based on theselected annotation category.
 48. The method according to claim 1,wherein retrieving the particular data and annotations includesintegrating annotations residing in multiple sources.
 49. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein organizing the annotation structureincludes organizing two or more annotation structures for the sameannotatable data item for use by different author contexts.
 50. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein inputting annotations includesinputting multiple annotations on a single annotatable data item. 51.The method according to claim 1, wherein inputting annotations includesinputting annotations from different authors.
 52. A method of managinginformation containing data, comprising: organizing an annotationstructure; inputting annotations in a source separate from the data,using a data integration engine; generating a query for simultaneouslyquerying for particular data and annotations; and in response to thequery, retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any.
 53. Themethod according to claim 52, wherein organizing the annotationstructure includes selecting an annotatable data item to be annotated byselecting a data item from any one or more of: a table, a view, a cell,a row, a column, an entity referenced by an index, an attribute of theentity, or a set comprised of any two or more of: the table, the view,the cell, the column, the row, the entity referenced by the index, orthe attribute of the entity.
 54. The method according to claim 52,further includes inputting annotations in a source where the dataresides.
 55. The method according to claim 52, wherein organizing theannotation structure includes selecting two or more categories.
 56. Amethod of managing information containing data, comprising: organizingan annotation structure; inputting annotations; generating a query forquerying for particular annotations in the context of data; in responseto the query, retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any;and wherein organizing the annotation structure includes selecting anannotatable data item to be annotated by selecting an attribute of anentity, where the entity is referenced by any one or more of: an index,a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schema object.
 57. Themethod according to claim 56, wherein selecting the annotatable dataitem includes selecting the entire entity.
 58. The method according toclaim 56, wherein selecting the annotation structure includes selectingtwo or more categories.
 59. The method according to claim 56, whereinorganizing the annotation structure further includes selecting a contextfor an annotation author.
 60. The method according to claim 56, whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes using a data integrationengine to select a plurality of annotatable data items originating fromat least two sources.
 61. A method of managing information containingdata, comprising: organizing an annotation structure; inputtingannotations in a source separate from the data, using a data integrationengine; generating a query for querying for particular annotations inthe context of data; and in response to the query, retrieving theparticular data and annotations, if any.
 62. The method according toclaim 61, wherein organizing the annotation structure includes selectingan annotatable data item to be annotated by selecting a data item fromany one or more of: a table, a view, a cell, a row, a column, an entityreferenced by an index, an attribute of the entity, or a set comprisedof any two or more of: the table, the view, the cell, the column, therow, the entity referenced by the index, or the attribute of the entity.63. The method according to claim 61, further includes inputtingannotations in a source where the data resides; and wherein organizingthe annotation structure includes selecting two or more categories. 64.A method of managing information containing data, comprising: organizingan annotation structure; inputting annotations; querying for particulardata in the context of annotations by selecting an annotation categoryof interest, and by entering a data query predicate based on a selectedannotation category; in response to the query, retrieving the particulardata and annotations, if any; and wherein organizing the annotationstructure includes selecting an annotatable data item to be annotated byselecting an attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced byany one or more of: an index, a schema object, or a set of the attributeor schema object.
 65. The method according to claim 64, whereinselecting the annotatable data item includes selecting the entireentity.
 66. The method according to claim 64, wherein selecting theannotation structure includes selecting two or more categories.
 67. Themethod according to claim 64, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes selecting a context for an annotation author.68. The method according to claim 64, wherein organizing the annotationstructure includes using a data integration engine to select a pluralityof annotatable data items originating from at least two sources.
 69. Amethod of managing information containing data, comprising: organizingan annotation structure; inputting annotations in a source separate fromthe data, using a data integration engine; querying for particular datain the context of annotations by selecting an annotation category ofinterest, and by entering a data query predicate based on a selectedannotation category; and in response to the query, retrieving theparticular data and annotations, if any.
 70. The method according toclaim 69, wherein organizing the annotation structure includes selectingan annotatable data item to be annotated by selecting a data item fromany one or more of: a table, a view, a cell, a row, a column, an entityreferenced by an index, an attribute of the entity, or a set comprisedof any two or more of: the table, the view, the cell, the column, therow, the entity referenced by the index, or the attribute of the entity.71. The method according to claim 69, further includes inputtingannotations in a source where the data resides.
 72. The method accordingto claim 45, wherein organizing the annotation structure includesselecting two or more categories.
 73. A method of managing informationcontaining data, comprising: organizing an annotation structure;inputting annotations; querying for particular annotations in thecontext of data by generating a query; in response to the query,retrieving the particular data and annotations, if any; whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes selecting an annotatabledata item to be annotated by selecting an attribute of an entity, wherethe entity is referenced by any one or more of: an index, a schemaobject, or a set of the attribute or schema object; and whereinorganizing the annotation structure includes using a data integrationengine to select an annotatable data item originating from at least twosources.
 74. The method according to claim 73, wherein selecting theannotatable data item includes selecting the entire entity.
 75. Themethod according to claim 73, wherein selecting the annotation structureincludes selecting two or more categories.
 76. The method according toclaim 73, wherein organizing the annotation structure further includesselecting a context for an annotation author.
 77. A method of managinginformation containing data, comprising: organizing an annotationstructure; inputting annotations; querying for particular data in thecontext of annotations by selecting an annotation category of interest,and by entering a data query predicate based on a selected annotationcategory; in response to the query, retrieving the particular data andannotations, if any; wherein organizing the annotation structureincludes selecting an annotatable data item to be annotated by selectingan attribute of an entity, where the entity is referenced by any one ormore of: an index, a schema object, or a set of the attribute or schemaobject; and wherein organizing the annotation structure includes using adata integration engine to select an annotatable data item originatingfrom at least two sources.
 78. The method according to claim 77, whereinselecting the annotatable data item includes selecting the entireentity.
 79. The method according to claim 77, wherein selecting theannotation structure includes selecting two or more categories.
 80. Themethod according to claim 77, wherein organizing the annotationstructure further includes selecting a context for an annotation author.